Do you want to play rugby?Fethard Under-16 East Munster final team. Back L to R: Daniel Fennelly, David Gorey, Joe Fogarty, Adrian Lawrence, Jack O’Sullivan, Declan Doyle, Kevin Croke, Billy Horan, Colin Blackmore, Shane Kavanagh, David Hall. Front L to R: Michael Power, John Moroney, Shane Gorey, Alan O’Connor, Dean Tobin, Kieran Shelley, Joseph Kelly, William Power, Stephen Healan.The new season sees our club entering its most exciting period to date with our boys competing in the under-18 east Munster cup and league for the first time. This is a major step forward for the club, which has been in existence for only five years. In that time we have had great successes in all groups. The highlights have been reaching four finals for under-12s, under-13s and under-14s and winning the east Munster plate with under-13 and under-14 teams.

Five of our players have been selected to the east Munster development side and one of our players is participating in the Munster cadets. For a rural community we have had great support from Fethard and all the surrounding parishes and we look forward to welcoming new and seasoned players for the forthcoming season.

All our coaches who worked so hard last year have signed up for this important work again this year. We are delighted to welcome Joe Burke and John Stokes on board.

Maybe you could be the next Denis Leamy! Training for the under 8s, 10s and 12s will take place in the Community Field every Friday evening at 7pm, commencing Friday 8th September. Training for the under-16s and 18s continues on Tuesday at 7.30pm.

Heritage Week highlights Fethard and Kilmallock
Colm McGrath taking a group on a guided tour around Fethard as part of the National Heritage Day. The Heritage Week programme comprises of a whole range of different activities throughout the country. Heritage Week 2006 runs from August 26th to September 3rd. L to R: Colm McGrath (guide), Terry Cunningham, Carmel O'Donnell, Ross Tudberry, Penny Bartlett, Marian Ryan, Sheila Dawson, Laura Greene and Sam Greene.

As part of the National Heritage week events, Colm McGrath gave a guided tour of Fethard on Sunday morning at 11.30am. Those who attended were given complimentary Heritage Council t-shirts and hats. Amongst the group were people from Australia and England.

During the week Kilmallock, Co. Limerick, held a two day Walled Town Conference which was attended by members of the Fethard Historical Society. The opening speech was given by Bat O’Keeffe, Minister of State in the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. He began by saying that Kilmallock, after the well-known examples of Fethard and Derry, was next in importance in terms of its town walls. Kilmallock is a town very similar to Fethard in many ways having once been a thriving market town which fell into decline in the 17th century. It has one remaining medieval gateway, retains 70% of its town walls, is located away from main roadways. It has very impressive ruins of a Dominican friary and a collegiate church.

Kilmallock suffered greatly during the Cromwellian period and during the Desmond wars. However, the ruins of Kilmallock became a great attraction to antiquarians and artists as part of the romantic movement in the late 18th century. In a fascinating lecture, Judith Hill illustrated the work of antiquarians such as Du Noyer, Beranger and Compton Cropper who flocked to towns such as Kilmallock and revelled in its melancholy aspect. Du Noyer also visited Fethard and his drawings are stored in the National Museum, The Royal Irish Academy, The Royal Society of Antiquarians in Merrion Square.

Other speakers included John Bradley and Con Manning. Sarah McCutcheon, archaeologist with Limerick Co. Council and one of the main conference organisers, brought us on a guided tour of the town. Alison Harvey, Planning and Development Officer with the Heritage Council, gave an overview of the work of the Irish Walled Towns Network. She gave December as the commissioning date for a Conservation and Management Plan for Fethard, Athenry and Wexford.

Overall it was an excellent conference and put an interesting perspective on Fethard's position as a historic walled town.

Sunday Morning Game
Fethard men Eamon Keane, Derry Curran and Bill O'Sullivan photographed after finishing their usual Sunday morning game at Slievenamon Golf Club

Have you got the X Factor?Well if the answer to the above question is yes than Butlers is the place to be on Friday 1st September. Cloneen sports & Social Club committee are raising funds for upkeep of the Hall and are running a competition called the X Factor.

Could you be the first Slievenamon Idol? This will be the third round run and if rumour has it right - it will be great craic. It is hoped all businesses and pubs etc will send a representative. There will be ten entrants on the night so get in there quick.

Entry fee is €20 and remember it's the audience who decides the winner by voting for your favourite act on the night. The three people with the most votes on the night go through to the semi-final in Cloneen. A wild card will also be picked on the night by the resident judge. The overall winner in the Final will win €400 with second receiving.

Wedding BellsCongratulations to Mary Barry of Tullamaine, Fethard and Páraic McCormack of Ballinure who were married at the Sacred Heart Church in Killusty on Saturday 26th August.

Fethard/Killusty London Reunion 2006This year’s Fethard & Killusty London Reunion will take place on Saturday 7th October 2006. We have a new venue which is more central and more accessible: Walkabout, Temple Station, Temple Place, Victoria Embankment, London WC2R 2PH. Tel: 020 7395 3690.

The Reunion will take place in the Function Room from 8pm, which is reached by turning left upon entering the main door (the Public Bar is straight ahead). A hot buffet meal will be served and entertainment will be provided by Mary Morrissey and her Band. Admission will be £10 for Adults and £5 for children, to help defray expenses.

A great, relaxed evening in the company of friends. The Walkabout is located on Victoria Embankment and forms part of the ‘block’ of Temple Underground Station. Close to Waterloo and Blackfriars Mainline stations, whilst Temple is on the Circle and District Underground Lines. The Walkabout is a 5-10 minute walk from Waterloo, Holborn and Blackfriars stations and approximately 200 meters from the Embankment station. Car parking is available in Arundel Street, at the bottom of which is located Temple station. All are welcome!

Our under-16 hurling team will play a vital game on this Thursday evening, 31st August, at 7pm away to Killenaule. This is a game the lads have to win as we were unlucky to be beaten by Ballingarry last week, in a great game of hurling. After been six points down in the second half, we fought back and were denied a draw. Great credit to the lads for playing some outstanding hurling on the night against what is probably one of the strongest teams in the county at this age group. Fethard showed that they are as good as any on their night. We will play Moyle Rovers in our final game of the league on Monday night next, 4th September, in Fethard at 7pm. We urge as many people as can to come out and support the team.

Te held our Summer Camp last week and what a great week we had with over 87 children enjoying the fun and games. We had boys and girls from Fethard, Mullinahone, Waterford, Dublin and America attending. The fun and friendships that were formed showed that our GAA Camp, with all the coaches and local people, proved to be a great success again. The juvenile club would like to thank all the parents of those who attended for their support and cooperation during the week. We also thank county players, Declan Fanning, Aidan Fitzgerald and Declan Brown for attending. At the end of the week we had a bouncy castle, face painting and a match with all the boys taking on the girls which proved to be very combative.

When the final whistle sounded on this year’s camp, each child was presented with a Cul Camp gear bag, jersey, togs, socks and water bottle. We also had a presentation of medals to all skills winners from various competitions run during the week and our annual water fight that leaves nobody going home dry, specially coaches, Shane Walsh, Gillian O’Connell, Sinéad Delahunty, Chris Sheehan, Aidi Lawrence and Dean Tobin who were brilliant all week with the kids. Looking forward to next year’s camp already. Finally our deepest sympathy goes out to Liam O’Dwyer from Carrick whose father passed away last week. Our thoughts and prayers are with him.

Greetings and thanks to Fethard from ‘down under’The dust has now settled on my travels and once more I’m at my own computer in Melbourne but refusing to let another day go by without expressing my sincere gratitude to the Fethard Historical Society for facilitating the hugely successful playreading of ‘Quilting the Armour’.

The tireless endeavours of the Society members and the wonderful talents of Esther, Mia, Holly, Jasper, Colm, Peter, Brian, Catherine, Anne W., Anne G., Louise, Terry, Johnny and John made a dream come true.

As writers, Rosemary Johns, Jeannie Hall and myself found the social and political history of nineteenth century Tipperary intrinsic to the legendary Ned Kelly saga. Through the Fethard Historical Society’s ‘Red’ Kelly research a bridge was built between Ireland and Australia that enabled the Kelly story to be brought ‘home’.

Of course very few of the Irish convicts that were sent to Australia ever made it back to their native land and Quilting the Armour is also a testament to the significance of the Irish in the establishment of colonial Australia.

Thank you Fethard for taking this story to your hearts. Ned Kelly’s mother, Ellen, had great vision and sacrificed much for the good ‘of those to come.’

I am sure a great good will come from linking Ireland and Australia in this way and I for one look forward to continuing the relationship. Thanks too to the folk that organised the supper and to Di and Dóirín for their wonderful hospitality.

With best wishes always, Yours faithfully, Brenda Addie.

The Well Golf SocietyThe Well Golf Society’s rescheduled outing to Callan Golf Club will take place on Saturday, 9th September, with a 12 noon tee off.

Fethard GAA Club NewsOur senior footballers made there exit from the County/South Championship last Saturday when they were well beaten by Grangemockler, for the second time this year, on a scoreline, Fethard 1-9 (0-4), Grangemockler 5-8 (3-8). All the damage was done in the first half and it was too big a hill to climb to come back. The team was: Paul Fitzgerald, Michael Aherne, Stephen O’Donnell, Philly Croke, Miceál Spillane, Cian Maher, Willie Morrissey, Aiden Fitzgerald 0-1f, Jamie McCormack, Eoin Doyle, Brian Coen 0-4 (2f), John P Looby 0-1, Martin Coen, Michael Dillon 0-1, Kenneth O’Donnell 0-1. Subs used were: Ian Kenrick, Christopher Sheehan 0-1, Carl Maher 1-0 (P), and Brian Burke. We now must preserve the club in a relegation battle that will not commence until the later stages of the County Championship, which is after 16th September.

We have qualified for the quarterfinal of the Munster League when, last week, we drew with Doonbeg (Clare) on a scoreline of 2-8 each. We await the Draw.

Our challenge for Intermediate Hurling Championship top position takes place in Monroe on this Saturday, 2nd September, at 3.30pm. In Minor B Hurling we received a walkover and now await the draw for our semifinal opponents. We expect to be playing on Friday 8th September.

Congratulations to Nicky O’Shea (Tullow) on winning €1,000 (fully paid up members draw) and €200 (promoter) in the County Board Draw; also to T J Murphy, St Johnstown, who won €300 in the August Draw. The presentations took place on Saturday last in Eldon Morris’s Bar (Dillon St, Clonmel).

Our condolences are at this time with Father Abey Kennedy and his sisters, June and Mary (Burke St) on the death of their mother, Angelina Kennedy, last week. Go ndeana Dia trocaire orthu.

Last Moyglass shopkeeper retiresBetty Cunningham, photographed with pupils from Moyglass National School on the occasion of her retirement from the grocery business. Betty was the only remaining shopkeeper in Moyglass village and now that her business has closed she will be sadly missed by all her junior customers from the nearby National School.

Fethard & Killusty Community LottoThe numbers drawn on Wednesday 23rd August were 17, 22, 23 and 24. There was no Jackpot winner and no ‘Match 3’ winners, so three tickets were drawn and the following won €50 each:Ned Connolly, Garrinch, Fethard;
Margaret Lawlor, The Valley, Fethard;
Anna Cooke, 49 St. Patricks Place, Fethard.